Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Day One

Day one is over.

The morning was a little crazy. Our students all arrive at different times, and after picking kids up from the office, meeting parents, meeting the bus from Okarche, eating breakfast, and taking morning restroom break, we finally got class started around 9:30. We started with music, which the kids LOVE. Then we had a period of work, followed by a short "station/center" time--playdoh, math games, train sets, and books.

Then we went to lunch. WARNING: grossness to follow!!! The lunch ladies must have decided to really initiate me on the very first day, because we had spaghetti. MY GOODNESS!!!! If you can survive spaghetti lunch day in the multi-handicap classroom, you can handle absolutely anything.

I learned several things during lunch today. First of all, spaghetti is better eaten with your hands, even if your teachers cut it up to bite-sized pieces and load it up on your fork for you. Also, green beans shouldn't be eaten at all (I kind of agree with this. I don't like them, either). So, if your teacher feeds you a forkful of them, the best course of action is to spit them back into her hand, along with the particles of spaghetti that may still be there. Something else I learned is that if you don't like grapes, if grapes in fact are a gag-inducing fruit to you, it is perfectly ok, acceptable even, to eat the stems instead, then laugh maniacally while your teachers try to pick them out of your mouth.

After lunch, we did some more work, while the the aides and I rotated eating our own lunch. Then some more centers before our 35 minute recess. After recess, we have snack time and clean-up. Then it was time to go home. Our students dismiss about a half hour before the rest of the school.

All in all it was a good day. We're getting a new student tomorrow. Another boy! We'll see how it goes.